Mixed Recycling, Mixed Feelings

This week, SK Recycles (formerly Multi-Material Stewardship Western) announced a new partnership with SARCAN that will allow residents to recycle glass jars, foam (e.g., Styrofoam) packaging, and flexible plastics (everything from plastic bags to stand-up pouches to chip bags).
It’s an exciting development. Those of us lucky enough to have access to both curbside recycling and organics programs are left to wonder “what will be left in my garbage can?” I started separating flexible plastics as soon as I got word about the new program, and all that’s left for me is paper/plastic combinations. (Plastics combined with foil are accepted, but not plastic with paper.)
Besides keeping things out of the landfill, another good thing about the new program is that it is province-wide. Every SARCAN will accept the same things. At the moment, curbside recycling programs vary significantly in what they collect, so it’s nice that this will be the same across the board for glass, foam, and flexible plastics.
At the same time as I’m thrilled to have a home for so many new items, I’m also feeling a twinge. Okay, maybe a couple of related twinges.
While it’s wonderful to eliminate the guilt from throwing away foam and flexible plastics, I had been hoping that maybe their ‘unrecyclability’ would lead to design changes or material substitutions, and maybe, just maybe, to a reusable solution. Like if we had kept going the same way, we could have reduced foam plastic to zero – there are pretty good alternatives out there. Now, there’s less incentive to make any changes.
Similarly, if we weren’t going to eliminate a package, maybe we could have made it circular? Perhaps everyone agrees to use a single type of stand-up pouch, that could be recycled into new stand-up pouches? Again, the incentive is gone.
Along the same lines, what will the flexible plastics actually be recycled into? When plastic and foil are bonded together, like a chip bag, what are the options? Aluminum is an element and can’t be broken down any further, so what happens to it when we try to recycle the plastic?
So, the twinges persist. On balance, I’m very happy that these items can be diverted from landfill. We’ll just have to find other ways to influence packaging to be more circular and closed-loop.